


the world's truth in the palm of his hand

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Silver Diamond
Genre: Alternate Universe - Loveless Fusion, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Nonnies Made Me Do It, Post-Canon, Rebirth, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2019-01-05 07:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12185709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: For the first time, Rakan understands the meaning of the word carved into the palm of his hand.





	the world's truth in the palm of his hand

**Author's Note:**

> (Contains spoilers for the entirety of Silver Diamond, blatant disregard for huge chunks of Loveless worldbuilding, and canon levels of kanji wordplay.)

The kanji on Rakan's palm read _rebirth_ , and for a long time, he has no idea what it really means.

No one knows where it came from or why it's there.  No one Rakan knows has anything like it, not even his mother.  "It’s probably because you came from another world," Gramps says once, in his silly but wise way.

For a long time, the word tattooed into his skin is the source of more questions than answers.  But then he meets Chigusa-–Chigusa with his strange coat and his strange goggles, Chigusa with his gun that grows roots and leaves.  Chigusa with the word _rebirth_ scrawled into his palm.

It's a _true name_ , Rakan discovers, and over the ensuing months, as Rakan travels to another world and spreads greenery and marches on the capital and fights to destroy a god, he learns what their true name means.   _Rebirth_  for Rakan, returning to a world he had been cast away from;  _rebirth_ for the plants he brings back to this desert land, for the life he brings back to this dying world.   _Rebirth_ for Chigusa, being born and getting killed and being born anew; _rebirth_ for the life he's forging, for the first time a life that's truly his.   _Rebirth_  for both of them, emerging revived from the roots and bark that had sheltered their bodies; _rebirth_ for the new life they have somehow been given, for the new life they're building together.

It all makes sense now.  Now, Rakan understands.

(There is one more thing that Rakan only now understands:  His true name is truer than he ever could have imagined.  

Hoshimi-no-koto had controlled so much, manipulated them all like a master puppeteer.  He'd created them, brought them together, guided their actions, directed their footsteps.  He'd controlled everything down to their names–-marking Chigusa with a lifespan of a thousand years, marking Rakan with the thread he used to manipulate them.  But despite all the things Hoshimi-no-koto had been able to control, in spite of all his machinations, their true name was beyond his reach.  When Chigusa had risen yet again from his grave, when Rakan had huddled as a babe curled up next to his Ayame twin, Hoshimi-no-koto had not been able to stop their souls from reaching out and finding each other and carving their bond into their flesh.

Of all the things Hoshimi-no-koto had been capable of, he had not been able to dictate what their true name would be.  Rakan knows this, as deeply and surely as he knows Chigusa’s heart and soul, because nowhere in the kanji of their true name does Hoshimi-no-koto's influence appear.

This Rakan knows:  From the beginning, Hoshimi-no-koto was doomed to failure, because from the beginning, there was something deep within them that bound them together, something not even Hoshimi-no-koto could touch.  And even if everything else was a lie, even if everything else was because of _him_ , Rakan knows that what he shares with Chigusa is theirs and theirs alone.  And there is nothing truer than that.)

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of fusionfic)
> 
> Notes: Hoshimi-no-koto's ability to manipulate people extends to their names; a number of characters have names that foreshadow or refer to specific aspects of Hoshimi-no-koto's extensive plot to recreate the world, including Chigusa (containing 千 "thousand," referring to his designated lifespan of 1000 years), Kou (虹 "rainbow," referring to the prophecy that the sky would be cut open by a rainbow), and the Touno brothers (灯野 "field of lights," referring to the light-emitting flowers that Hoshimi-no-koto uses to extend his influence). Furthermore, Hoshimi-no-koto uses "threads" to manipulate people, and as a symbol of this manipulation, several characters have names with kanji relating to thread: The Kingen (金弦) family has 弦, meaning "string," and the first kanji of Rakan (羅貫) contains the root 糸, meaning "thread."
> 
> In contrast, "rebirth" (蘇生 _sosei_ ) is made up of two characters, 蘇 ("revive") and 生 ("life," "to be born"), with the former made up of component parts meaning "tree," "grass," and "fish"-–no sign of threads anywhere.)


End file.
